Unreliable Sword Immortal.

Chapter 152 Unlocking Excellence

Tianfeng City is in complete chaos.

The players were hunted down, the guards were slaughtered, and even the reinforcements from the Golden Sword Sect and the Tianfeng Sword Sect were of no use; they were all ravaged by the gray-robed man.

One after another, announcements rang out, reporting the deaths of powerful NPCs.

Two hours later, a server-wide announcement sounded: "Ding! Jin Wuhen, the leader of the Golden Sword Sect, has sworn allegiance to a mysterious person. The Golden Sword Sect has been destroyed, its disciples disbanded, and all sect costumes and items have disappeared!"

"Ding! Feng Baisui, the leader of Tianfeng Sword Sect, has sworn allegiance to a mysterious person. Tianfeng Sword Sect has been destroyed, its disciples have been disbanded, and sect costumes and other sect items have disappeared."

"Ding! The Qilin Sword Sect has been established, with its temporary headquarters in Tianfeng City..."

This series of server-wide announcements was truly earth-shattering, shocking a large number of players, and related posts quickly appeared on the forums.

Meanwhile, Lu Chaoding had already arrived at Peach Blossom Island. He had also heard the server-wide announcement and was quite puzzled. He muttered to himself, "What happened in Tianfeng City? How could two major sects be wiped out? Was it done by a mysterious person? With such high martial prowess?"

At this moment, Peach Blossom Sword God Sea Cow and his son Sea Urchin had come out of the island to welcome Lu Chao.

The Peach Blossom Sword God, Hai Niu, was still only wearing shorts. Lu Chao returned his old robes to him, saying, "Elder Hai Niu will be a member of my reliable sword sect from now on, so you need to pay attention to your image. You can wear these clothes for now, and you can change into them later when I, the sect leader, design the sect elders' costumes!"

"Thank you, Sect Leader!"

The Peach Blossom Sword God respectfully cupped his hands, and under the influence of the occasionally unreliable system, he truly appeared to be wholeheartedly loyal.

Lu Chaoding let him board the ship, which was a temporary arrangement to "install" him on the celestial-class patrol ship as a guard.

Sea Urchin naturally boarded the ship as well. He was just a special handyman, probably even below the level of a beginner disciple. He was carrying a pot on his back and seemed very curious about everything.

"That Sea Urchin guy has a name and a background, he can't be this bad. There's probably some story behind him..."

As Lu Chao was pondering this, the Peach Blossom Sword God suddenly approached him with a frown and said, "Sect Leader, there is something I must tell you clearly. My original name was not Hai Niu, but Xiang Ruyan. I come from Qilin Cliff beyond the Twelve States, and I am the leader of the Nine Qilin!"

"Nine Qilin? The Legend of the Nine Qilin?"

Lu Chaoding immediately thought of the previous server-wide announcement. He realized that the opening of the large-scale story quest [Legend of Nine Qilin] was probably related to the Peach Blossom Sword God's loyalty to him.

The Peach Blossom Sword God continued, "Fifty years ago, my eight junior brothers and I came to the Twelve Provinces of Hongchen, hoping to make a name for ourselves with our swords. However, fate played a cruel trick on us. We were bewitched and manipulated by that demoness Yan Shangjing, and made many mistakes. Although we eventually suppressed Yan Shangjing, my eight junior brothers were seriously injured and died one after another. Only I remained, living in seclusion on Peach Blossom Island, never daring to mention my former name again. But now, Yan Shangjing has actually broken free... This woman is powerful and evil by nature. Now that she has appeared in the world, she will surely wreak havoc. I urge the sect leader to take precautions."

As he said this, he reached out and grabbed at Peach Blossom Island, which immediately split in two, and a palm-sized golden fragment flew out from it.

"Yan Shangjing cultivates a special technique that allows her to create countless clones, making her extremely difficult to deal with. To kill her, we can only rely on the Nine-Scaled Calamity Mirror. The Nine-Scaled Calamity Mirror is the most precious treasure of our Qilin Cliff. It is divided into nine pieces, and my eight junior brothers and I each possess one fragment. To kill Yan Shangjing, we must gather all nine fragments, combine them into one, and then unleash the power of the Calamity Mirror to pursue and destroy all her clones. I was injured years ago and have yet to fully recover. I know my strength can hardly improve any further, so I entrust this fragment to the sect leader!"

After speaking, the Peach Blossom Sword God respectfully presented the fragment to Lu Chao.

[Nine-Scaled Mirror of Calamity - Fragment 1: Special item, quest item. Provides the locations of the other eight fragments (click to view). Collect all nine fragments to synthesize the one-time special item, the Nine-Scaled Mirror of Calamity.]

Lu Chao examined the fragment and also checked the location of the other eight fragments. He found that the other eight fragments were located in eight Qilin Secret Realms, which were scattered all over the country and seemed to be far apart.

"Collecting all eight pieces won't be easy!"

As Lu Chao was pondering this, he suddenly received a system notification: "Ding, accept the quest [Legend of the Nine-Scaled Qilin]. Collect all the fragments of the Nine-Scaled Qilin Mirror and defeat Yan Shangjing. Quest completion reward: 100 lottery tickets and 1 point of prestige!"

"Ding! The Occasionally Unreliable System has activated, updating the tracking mission with altered content: Collect all the fragments of the Nine-Scaled Calamity Mirror and defeat Yan Shangjing. Mission completion reward: 1 Unreliable Lottery Ticket and 100 Reputation Points!"

"What the hell is 'spreading fame'?"

Lu Chaoding adjusted the direction of the Sky Patrol Ship, and then carefully studied the locations of the eight Qilin Secret Realms. One of them was in Tianyun Prefecture, which seemed to be not far from the Tianxing Tower.

Half a day later, Lu Chaoding steered the Sky Patrol Ship directly above Tianyun City Square.

In the center of the plaza below stands the Sky Tower.

This tower is magnificent, like a giant's building, with an epic feel. It has five floors and is a kilometer tall. It is an octagonal tower with entrances on all eight sides. The tower body emits a faint golden light, and mysterious golden runes surround and dance around it.

The square was very empty, with very few people, a few who looked like NPCs, but no players.

Jiang Youxian had already sobered up by this time. She rode her wine gourd down from the patrol ship and said, "I'm going to participate in the Heavenly Journey Trial!"

Zhao Weike was also released by Lu Chao. He practiced switching between gun and sword on the deck, while the sea urchin squatted to the side, watching intently as if watching a play, occasionally clapping and cheering.

The Peach Blossom Sword God, the Manatee, seemed rather dull. Without his storyline triggering, he would sit obediently cross-legged at the bow of the ship, appearing quite unfathomable.

A moment later, Lu Chaoding also jumped off the Sky Patrol Ship and went straight into the Sky Tower.

"Ding! You have entered the Sky Tower. Your level has reached 30, meeting the requirements. You are about to begin the Sky Tower Trial of the Excellence Realm!"

"Ding! Please select the trial difficulty! There are five difficulty levels: Easy, Normal, Hard, Extremely Hard, and Despair! The higher the difficulty, the richer the rewards upon completion."

"Choose despair!"

"Ding, are you sure you want to choose despair? Note: If you fail the trial, you can only participate again after 24 hours!"

"Sure!"

"Ding! The Despair-level Skywalking Trial is being prepared for you. The trial has been generated. Please defeat the Bronze War Beast within three rounds. Upon completion of the trial, you will be promoted to the Excellent level, your level cap will be raised to LV60, and you will receive an additional 5 Jade Tokens, 5 Jade Inheritance Tokens, 5 Jade of Enlightenment, and 1 random item!"

"Ding! The Occasionally Unreliable System has activated, updating the tracking mission with altered content: Defeat the Bronze War Beast within three rounds. Upon completion of the trial, you will be promoted to the Excellent rank, your level cap will be raised to LV60, and you will receive an additional 5 Jade Tokens, 5 Jade Inheritance Tokens, 5 Jade of Enlightenment, and 1 Unreliable Random Item!"

After the system notification ended, Lu Chaoding entered a battle space dedicated to the trial. Opposite him was a bronze war beast with 5 million health points, a height of two zhang (approximately 6.6 meters), and a lion-like appearance.

"You call this despair?"

Lu Chao was very disappointed. He equipped his flying insect sword and took down the bronze war beast with just one normal attack at the start of the battle.

The trial rewards were immediately distributed. The Jade of Tokens, Jade of Inheritance, and Jade of Enlightenment were all good items, but the unreliable random item surprised Lu Chao.

That was actually the skill book for the five-star secret technique, "Dissolving Power Technique".

(End of this chapter)